July 9/13 13:17 pm - Tour de France - Stage 10

Posted by Editoress on 07/9/13

Kittel ahead of Greipel in a sprint of the Germans

After the excitement of the ninth stage and a day of rest, it was back to racing in the 100th Tour de France. The day was categorised as ‘flat’ and a bunch sprint was predicted... and that’s just what unfolded in St-Malo at the end of 197km of racing. ‘The Break’ was composed of five men but they never really stood a chance of holding off the charge of a peloton that had been controlled by Argos-Shimano, Lotto-Belisol and Omega Pharma-Quickstep riders who were intent on ensuring that this day on the northern coastline of Brittany ended the way they had planned. With the lead-out duties done, it was time for the sprint to open up inside the final kilometre but that’s when Argos-Shimano threw a spanner in the works of the sprinters’ teams with a crash in the closing metres of the race. One of Marcel Kittel’s lead-out men looked right, then left to see where his sprinter was and he bumped shoulders with Mark Cavendish and thumped onto the tarmac. That took the wind out of the sails of the British champion just as he was poised to start his sprint; he ultimately trailed two Germans to the line... Kittel and André Greipel were mixed up in a drag race. German against German, Argos-Shimano versus Lotto-Belisol, youth against experience... and this time it was the young man who got the spoils. Marcel Kittel added a second stage win to his collection 10 days after his victory in Bastia on day one of the 2013 race.

The progress reportThere were 182 riders remaining in the 2013 Tour de France at the sign on for the 10th stage from Staint-Gildas-des-Bois to Saint-Malo. The official start of the stage was at 12.55pm and the riders faced 197km, with only one categorised hill on the road to the northern coastline of Brittany (the cote de Dinan, cat-4 at 142km). The intermediate sprint was in Le Hinglè (at 127.5km). Five escapees joined forces at the 1.5km mark, they were: Oroz (EUS), Simon (SOJ), Maté (COF), Westra (VCD) and Cousin (EUC). By 9km, the quintet was ahead by 3’30” when Sky led the peloton. At 15km three teams moved forward to share the pacesetting duties for the peloton: Lotto-Belisol, Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Argos-Shimano. The advantage of the escapees continued to grow until the 32km mark when 5’05” was the maximum gain. The average speed for the first hour was 42.5km/h; the second hour: 36.5km/h; the third hour 37.9km/h...

Greipel leads Sagan and Cavendish to the sprintMaté raced ahead to claim the 20 points for first and the intermediate sprint, almost doubling Cofidis’ prize money by taking 1,500 euros for the prime (the squad had only earned 1,670 euros up until stage nine). The peloton closed in quickly as Cannondale put three riders on the front – for the first time in the stage – two kilometres before the sprint but it was Greipel (LTB) who collected sixth-place ahead of Sagan (CAN) and Cavendish (OPQ). On the côte de Dinan, Westra attacked the lead group, took the point and continued on ahead alone briefly. The peloton was only 2’30” behind.

GC teams move forward near the coastWith 42km to go, the same sprinters’ teams help their positions at the head of the peloton but on the approach to coast, the GC teams – Sky, Movistar, BMC, RadioShack, Belkin and Saxo-Tinkoff – also moved forward. With 27.5km to go, Oroz was the first to attack the lead group. He was chased down after only 1km. Westra quit his effort at the front and was caught 18km from the finish. Talansky (GRS) and Tuft (OGE) crashed with 17km to go both remounted and rejoined the peloton before the finish.

Kittel claims a second stage winOroz, Simon, Maté and Cousin were caught 6km from the line. It was Saxo-Tinkoff and Garmin-Sharp that was at the front for much of the finale but, in the closing three kilometres, Argos-Shimano and Lotto-Belisol dominated the lead-out for the sprint. Inside the final 500m, a rider from Argos-Shimano crashed; while he didn’t bring down any other riders, he forced riders like Goss (OGE) and Cavendish (OPQ) to take evasive action. The British champion tried to chase down Marcel Kittel and André Greipel who were further ahead of the fall but he shook his head in frustration inside the final 200m and had to watch on as the winner of stage one, Kittel beat his compatriot to the line by the a wheel. This was the German’s second stage win in the Tour de France, after his success in Bastia on day one.

Froome finished 24th in the stage, avoiding any incident, and he will be the last rider to start the time trial of stage nine. There was no change to the top order of GC as the first 100 riders were all on the same time as Kittel.